Saturday, July 18, 2009

Raspberry Jelly


I couldn't resist the urge to put my over the top crop of raspberries to good use. The freezer was quickly filling with container after container of juicy, tart, berries of goodness and I knew I would have to use some of them soon, if for nothing else, space reasons!

I love homemade jelly. I'm not much of a jam person.. having grown up on smooth and glossy jellies. Up to today, I have never made my own jelly so I was excited to give it a try.

Cooking down the berries and extracting the juice was the first step. I placed 7 cups of fresh berries in a heavy pan and added a scant 1/2 cup of water. I slowly cooked the berries down, breaking the berries down with a potato masher.

As the berries continued to cook, whole berries turned to a most beautiful red raspberry puree.
Once the berries were cooked down, I strained the liquid to leave a tart juice.

Placing 4 cups of the strained juice into another pan, the juice was cooked again until it reached a rolling boil. Fruit pectin and 5 cups of sugar were added and brought back to a rolling boil. The mixture boiled for 1 minute.


In the meantime, I had filled an enamelware canning pot half full of water and placed on the stove to boil. This is for processing the jars once they are filled. The water level must reach at least 1" above the top of the filled jars.

Once the raspberry/sugar mixture boiled for 1 minute, it was removed from the stove and the jars were very quickly filled, using a wide mouth funnel. The jars were filled to approximately 1/2 inch from the top. the tops of the jars were wiped clean of any possible spillage and topped with the sanitized sealing lids and rings. Each jar was hand tightened and placed in the hot water bath. The jars were processed for 5 minutes then removed to cool on the counter.


The result is the most beautiful raspberry jelly! I used 1/2 pint jars. I like this style jar with their short but wide shape. (they are Ball jars)
Next step is to design a label for the lids and then they are ready to give as gifts and of course, keep a few for our own use!

9 comments:

Elaine said...

Those are the cutest jars! And your jelly looks SO good, Kenn! Congratulations on making your first batch - you made it look so easy!

Elaine said...

I just saw the Good Things Blog award - Congratulations are in order again, Kenn!

mike said...

I love those jars. I have a bunch of them - empty! What a great idea to use them for. Now I just need some raspberries..... :) They'll make wonderful gifts for someone!

John R. said...

Now you're getting me in the mood to start jelly making!

Unknown said...

i was just starting to think about doing the same thing ken. i've never made jelly either, so i'm going to use your recipe.

i'm with you...jelly seems so much more refined than jam.

thanks for sharing!

Kate said...

i am curious as to whether your jelly actually jelled after only 1 minute of cooking after adding sugar. Mine always takes a lot longer to reach 220.

Kenn said...

Hi Kate,
It took more than a minute for the mixture to return to a full rolling boil. Once it did reach that point, it was allowed to cook for 1 minute.
The final product was a very soft set jelly; much like a jam without seeds. It was quite delicious!

Anonymous said...

How much pectin did you use?

Anonymous said...

Yes,please answer, how much pectin?